Double Tuesday with Double Shadows.

Hi everybody!

It's time for another double Tuesday at Tag Tuesday and Try it on Tuesday.

At Tag Tuesday our theme this week is Australia. For my tag I used  a painting in Aboriginal style which I made for a challenge last year.I cropped the image, and then reduced it to tag size. I gave the image a coat of clear varnish, and matted it with black card. I added the map of Australia and some ribbon and beads with a gecko charm which I had stashed away in one of my boxes. I knew I had it, the surprise for me is finding it at the right time!

 At Try it on Tuesday our theme is travel. As usual, you have 2 weeks to join in with the challenge. I have once again used TH's Mr UM, I don't know how often I have used this die cut, but it was a lot, and fits well to this theme. I have used a stamp from Scrollswork for the Sandwich-man, I love this combination of the 2 men, which I have also used many, many times. The background is corrugated card, painted with white gesso, and matted with burlap, ribbon and DP, and a liberal coat of embossed Utee. The image with the sentiment and cases is from CI. The ball-chain is also from TH, the beads have been made from dictionary paper.

 I am also linking to Artful Times - Tim Holtz tags, and Moo Mania, embossing.

My neighbour went walking with me again today, I think I have infected her with the walkie-bug.

The lovely avenue of trees along mossy grass verges was taken in the sculpture park, as was our double-trouble shadow picture.

The second double pic was taken along the Rhine Embankment.

We walked over 14000 steps, and this afternoon I went for a second, shorter walk, bringing my total to almost 20000. It was cold and frosty, but wonderfully sunny, and we really enjoyed being out and about.

Have a great day, take care, and thanks a lot for coming by

A tag and a Sunday walk along the Rhine

Hi everybody!

Today was a Sunday which deserved its name - the sun shone all day, and although it was cold, it was good to feel the sun on my back while walking- 19000+ steps today!

There was a lot going along down at the Rhine :

Ships chugging along in both directions:

The ferry manoeuvering into position:

 

And people, dogs and even horses being taken for a walk:

 

The challenge at FSC is to make a tag. For my tag I used a leftover piece of textured paper. This is made by scrunching tissue paper onto thin card, fixing it with Mod Podge, and then painting it with gesso before colouring it as desired. I used various blues and some copper Inka gold to bring out the highlights.

Then I glued on fragments of printed and written paper and some gold leaf, and gave it a coat of clear varnish.

 

My image is a fairy stamp from Lost Coast designs, which Jeannette recently sent me. I stamped the image twice onto speciality paper from LaBlanche, fussy cut them, and fixed them together with foam squares. I used twinkling H2Os to colour her dress and wings.

I added some flowers to try to cheer her up, she doesn't look really happy!

I am also linking to Tagalong, favourite technique - one of my faves is making backgrounds like this.

Have a great day you all, take care, and thanks a lot for coming by!

Nice weather for the ducks

Hi everybody!

Hope you are enjoying your weekend. It poured here today, so it was a wet walk and puddle-jumping day - not that I minded. We have to take the weather as it comes. I had a long walk this morning and a shorter one in the afternoon, and managed just under 16000 steps, so I was happy. There are less people around in 'bad' weather, so it's like having the world to myself. I only saw a few other all-weather crazy walkers and runners, and a couple of dogs tugging their glum looking 2 legged tin-openers along behind them.

The ducks, gulls and geese were happy.

 

 

At Gecko Galz there are lots of new papers, collage sheets and digi stamps for February, including images and papers suitable for spring and St Patrick's Day, so it's well worth taking a look. This card has been made with an image from the 'Artsy Jewels' sheet. the images can be enlarged and printed in the size you need. I matted it with a piece of blue coredinations paper, and some hand-painted paper in blue, green and gold. I chose a metallic card blank 7"x4". I added a blue bow and threaded some of my home made paper beads and a couple of glass beads onto the ribbon.

Material List: Image from Artsy Jewels, card and background paper for matting, card blank, ribbon and beads.

Here's wishing you all a great day. Take care, have fun and thanks a lot for coming by!

Saturday this and that

Hi everybody!

This week has flown by again, I don't know where the time goes. This afternoon I sat down and put my feet up for 10 minutes, and woke up, frozen stiff, 3 hours later! Luckily I already did my big walk this morning, so my 15.900 steps were already in the bag. The weather has been frosty but sunny for several days, but tomorrow we have been promised rain.

The collage here has been made over the last 2 weeks. The background is a brush wipe page, which I then stamped and white embossed to give some texture. The lovely peacock stamp was a gift from Yvonne.   I used lots of UFOs (untidy flying-around objects) from my work table and glued them on till I was satisfied with the result. The picture on the right is my sister Cynthia with her son when he was a few days old. Her son is now 50 and my sister died in 1999 after a stroke, time flies, therefore the clocks. But why the giraffe is wearing a red butterfly as a bow tie, I don't know....

Yesterday I baked some English Flapjacks. I only made them because Sandy keeps asking me to show some food again, so I am sacrificing myself eating them for her. They are made with dark syrup, butter, brown sugar and oats, so they are very healthy, and taste like toffee - yummy!

I discovered this puddle on my way through the fields today, I love the patterns in the ice.

And of course, I visited my feathered friends again and tooke them some bread, so they were happy.

I am linking to Paper Saturdays  and PPF and to MooMania, embossing.

Have a great day, take care, and thanks a lot for coming by!

A Collage and a Journal Page

Hi everybody!

Yesterday was another wonderful, sunny day, although it stayed frosty. It started off with frost on the fields, -4° and a beautiful sunrise, and I was able to enjoy 2 good walks along the Rhine, making a total of nearly 18000 steps, over 8 1/2 miles, so I was proud of myself for that.

The collage I am showing today, which I have called 'Life on various levels', is one I started 2 years back, and which I have worked on here and there, and finished at last. It's still not quite as I wanted, but I think that's something we have to reckon with. I used acrylic paints, stencils, some scraps of gold leafing, lots of bits and bobs from my table, lace, buttons, die-cuts, cut out images, a serviette and some of the transfer images that Jeanette sent me this week. I found some scraps on which I had used candle wax and stamped into it, and included them, too.

 

The journal page has also been made with other flying bits and bobs on a painted, stenciled and stamped background. The robin red-breasts were from a Christmas serviette. I have created a little world where sky and sea mix and meet in silence - even the birds are blowing bubbles instead of chirping.

The last photo was taken just before sunset at the Rhine:

I am linking to PPF, hosted by the lovely Eva and Kristin, and AJJ, silence, hosted by our gorgeous Susi.

Have a great day you all, take care, and thanks a lot for coming by.

Tag Tuesday and More

Hi everybody!

Tuesday means that it's time for Tag Tuesday, and our theme this week is decay.

For my tag I used a photo taken at an old Jewish graveyard in Brandenburg during a field trip there some years back. I cut a tag from recycled black card from an old calendar, and gave it the form of a cabinet card, as this reminds me of the form of a gravestone. I cut the photo to the same shape. The text is from the well-known hymn, 'Abide with me', which we used to sing at school in London, and although I am not a religious person, I always liked this hymn. I added a spot of colour with the flowers and left everything else in black and white. I love the way the stone is leaning against the tree, and how new shoots are springing up - the eternal cycle of life, death, decay and new life.

Today was rather wet, with lots of showers, so I didn't wander too far from home, and did three short walks, with  total of just over 14000 steps (7 1/2 miles).  In the afternoon the sun tried to come out, and the sky was really impressive.

 

At the Rhine there were dozens of wild geese, bobbing about in the water where a stream flows into the river, then taking off and flying away in groups. I stood there for so long that I got wet feet, but I loved watching them.

 

Have a great day you all, take care, and thanks a lot for coming by!

Lions, ducks and horses

Hi everybody!

We had a lot of wind and rain here all night, which meant lots of puddles on my walk today. But it stayed dry all the time I was out, which was good, although their was a biting wind along the Rhine which seemed to be nibbling at my ears! Puddle jumping is a sport which I have practised since I was a toddler, and which stood me in good stead today.

I love these mossy and rather dilapidated lions on the bridge over the moat.

And the ducks were busy as usual, they don't mind it being wet.

  

Between my morning walk and the afternoon one nearly 18.000 steps!)  I did some crafting, got some of my DT cards for Gecko Galz done, which I can't show yet, and made this one for Artful Times, where the theme is 'Year of the Horse', for the Chinese New Year.  I don't have any Chinese stamps, but remembered this drawing which I made back in the 1980s, using soft, blacklead pencils. I had the idea from the son of a friend, who always drew horses. I took a photo of it and printed it out as my focal motive, matting it with dark grey mirri-board, and red and black cardstock. As an embellishment I added the little sticker with the rose and some Chinese/Japanese? writing.

Have a good day, take care, and thanks a lot for coming by!